Unexpected Attraction
by MCCrocker
Summary: Blaise cannot wait to get out of Hogwarts and wants nothing more than to just get through the school year. Yet, he finds himself intrigued by one person the last person anyone would expect - Susan Bones. This was done for ScorpiusRose17's Proverb Challenge on HPFF
Blaise rolled his eyes as he found himself loading onto the school train for yet another year at Hogwarts. It was kind of sickening dealing with all the people that were there at the castle. He was sick and tired of the self-centered idiots that he was surrounded by during the school year – particularly when it came to that prat, Draco Malfoy. The idiot thought he ruled the entire school. Though, with rumors as they were, maybe the insufferable prick would be taken down a few pegs. Of course, that would be the day, and he doubted that; even with dear precious daddy no longer around that the ass would still be just that – an ass.

His focus was chiefly on getting by this year, and putting up with the rest of his house. It was interrupted however, when a large commotion caused him to physically pause in his progress to the train. There was a small squeak as a trolley toppled over, spilling its contents everywhere. Blaise couldn't help but roll his eyes at the situation as he was forced to wait to load onto the train.

"Sorry," said the blonde girl, who had a single long braid flowing down her back. "I think the trolley has a loose wheel."

"Whatever," said Blaise with a sigh, as he stood there waiting and watching the girl. She started to pick things up one at a time like a pathetic muggle. He'd seen the girl before; she was in his class – Bones right? That was a solid name. She wasn't a stupid mudblood, but why in the world was she doing things like a pathetic muggle? This was close enough to school. There were far too many people here, the trace was not going to work well.

"Use your wand," he said in a very bored tone, as he rolled his eyes again. He looked at her, his eyes met her green ones, and the color struck him. Most blonds were blue or brown eyed weren't they? It was kind of striking.

"You're right," she said with a soft smile that graced her face nicely. She pulled her wand out of her pocket. "My auntie is a big stickler for following magical law – on account of her job." She shook her head before brandishing her wand with a flourish and causing all of her things to lift into the train.

"Thank you." Another bright smile was flashed his ways and Blaise was taken aback by it. She thought he had helped her? He had just wanted her out of the way, and the quickest way to get that done and taken care of was for her to actually use her wand, instead of acting like a stupid muggle.

"Yeah, sure," mumbled Blaise as Bones got onto the train making way for him to do the same. He had just settled in before he got an interesting letter from Slughorn. The new professor wished for him to have lunch in his train car. It was a rather dull meeting, where Potter, who was as bad as Malfoy, went off about his amazing abilities. Unfortunately, the professor had the stupidity to laud certain idiots around, such as the blood traitor Weasley. To think that Parkinson thought he might find interest in such a person! It was then that Bones took the time to drift into his mind, with no rhyme or reason. He dismissed the thoughts as soon as they encroached on his mind. Instead he focused on getting through the dreadfully dull starting feast. He looked forward to getting back to the common room, where he might be able to finally get a little bit of respite from the idiots that surrounded his life.

As he sat there at the table tuning everyone out, his eyes drifted across the room to the Hufflepuff table. She was sitting there smiling and chatting with her friends. What was it about her smile? He pulled his eyes away from Bones as someone spoke to him, he feigned interest as needed, but he really was not that intrigued. It was a long night, and he was finally able to reach his dorm room, as he so longed for. In short order, he closed the curtains to his bed and went to sleep.

Unfortunately, Blaise did not get a very sound night's rest; his dreams were filled with a blond hair, green eyed vixen. Thus, when it was time to wake up, he gave a small groan as he tried to purge his mind of the dreams, and face a new day. There were only 274 days left till he was free of this place once again. Too bad it wasn't his seventh year and he could be done with all of the dim wits that he was entirely surrounded by.

Blaise wasn't exactly fond of breakfast, he usually preferred to sleep in that short amount of time skipping the meal allowed him, but this was the first day of term. If he had any hope of knowing where he was to go for classes, he had to attend this one breakfast. As a result, he begrudgingly dragged himself out of bed. He was forced, to wait a prolonged amount of time to get his schedule, considering the fun that came with NEWT classes. Really, why was anyone surprised? OWL results came in before now, they were told, as he was, what was needed for each class. Only change was Defense Against the Dark Arts and Potions, but really, it didn't warrant this level of a delay. Blaise was glad when he finally got his schedule, so he could get out of the Great Hall and away from the insistent yammering of Pansy judging everyone's looks. How did Draco even put up with her? He didn't know, and he didn't care. He was just glad to get out, and head toward his first free period. The time was slotted for sixth year potions, and he wasn't taking that. Maybe the library would be a good place to hide out for a few hours. He was certain it wouldn't be too busy, considering it was the start of term. Maybe he could find a secluded corner to catch a few extra moments of sleep. It was a risk on some levels, but with the right charms, it might be worth it – after all the common room would be insufferable with those that didn't have class, like he, more than likely hanging out there.

Settling into his corner, Blaise enjoyed a full thirty minutes of peace and quiet before he was roused by the ruckus of crashing books, and a shriek. It caused him to get up, curious as to the noise. He wondered what idiot caused a stack of books to come crashing down, maybe some obsessive Ravenclaw. Yet, when he looked around the end of the book shelf, he was surprised to see not a Ravenclaw, but rather the Hufflepuff girl, Bones. He looked at her with intrigued interest as she sat there swarmed with books including one sitting open on her head like a hat.

"Either you are very accident prone, or trying to start a new fashion trend," he remarked, looking her over.

The girl turned to look at him, green eyes wide. "You think it might be the next big thing?" She smiled that sweet smile, which just faintly dimpled her cheeks.

"If you got the right witches and wizards to wear it, otherwise you'll be considered as looney as Lovegood."

The girl giggled and it surprised Blaise, giggles were usually annoying but Bones' was soft and natural – cute even. "It might be best if I don't try for setting this new trend then."

"Might be wise," said Blaise as he watched Susan pull the book off of her head and smooth her perfectly pulled back blond hair. "So what happened anyway?"

"I was trying to pull a book on transcribing runes, but I think someone jinxed it. I first thought someone placed a sticking charm on it, because I couldn't pull it off the shelf. It got worse though, as I became stuck to the book itself! Fortunately I got free but the entire shelf of books followed suit, crashing down with the one I wanted."

"You seem to have the worst luck imaginable." Blaise shook his head astounded that for two days in a row he found the same Hufflepuff girl facing an unfortunate predicament. In some ways it was too unreal.

"Yeah, it kind of goes in spurts my luck. At least I have the book I wanted and it's no longer sticky." Susan smiled as she pulled out her wand and spoke the spell needed to put the books back in their place.

"You remembered your wand I see," spoke Blaise involuntarily - what was it about this girl? She blushed a little bit as the books finally landed where they belonged. "I better be on my way, before my hand gets suck to yet another book."

"That might be a little more than embarrassing," said Blaise with a nod of his head. "Why do you want the book anyway? Ancient Runes isn't until next period, and it's the first of term."

"I know," said Susan with a smile and a wave before she walked away, leaving Blaise to stand there and wonder. What was she doing translating runes this early in the semester? Blaise shook his head trying to free himself of the questions and thoughts of the Hufflepuff girl. Still, her image floated in his head till it was time to go to class. He and Bones both found their way of leaving the library at the same time. There was a part of Blaise that wanted to converse with her, but he didn't as it would be questionable out here among everyone. Why was he wanting to converse with a Hufflepuff? It was bad enough being seen practically walking with her. Their two houses didn't belong with each other; they were sort of enemies. He pulled away from Susan on their way to the same class, to break the appearance of walking together.

Still, despite his best efforts, it seemed like he and Susan had all the same classes and had a way of leaving at almost the exact same time. It was most infuriating as Pansy started to nose in, demanding to know about him and Susan. Where they an item now? How could he even think about being with a girl like her?

"I'm not," he said coolly that night at dinner. "It is not my fault she is taking the same courses as me. I would rather she didn't." He gave an eye roll as well. It was, of course, a straight lie. He had thought about her more than he should have. Really though, she wasn't considered a blood traitor and she wasn't as fifthly as a mudblood; of disdainful girls he could have happened to be associated with, Susan Bones certainly was not the worst. Still, he tried to keep his distance for a while, despite his eyes and thoughts lingering on her when they could.

Eventually Blaise broke down during one of their free periods there in the library. "Any luck with the latest rune translations?"

Susan lifted he head, her dazzling green eyes meeting his liquid browns. "What?" she asked almost confused for a moment before she seemed to snap back to reality. She nodded and gave a little affirmative hum. "I got them done last night."

Blaise blinked his eyes as he stared at her open rune translation book. Susan's brow knitted in return as she gazed back at him for a moment.

"Oh, this isn't for class."

"Then what is it for?" The words left Blaise's mouth before he could stop them.

"My Auntie Amelia, she likes to write to me in runes. It's sort of our own secret code, but not really." A pink tinge moved across Susan's face, which just seemed to make her face glow.

"Really?" he asked moving over to look at Susan's parchment.

"It may be in runes, but it's private," said Susan sharply, quickly placing a hand over her letter.

Blaise blinked at her in surprise. He hadn't seen such fire from her before. He wasn't looking to read what Susan's aunt had said; he was just looking to see if what she said was true. There wasn't a reason for her to lie, but it just seemed beyond him that a Hufflepuff, of all people, would be into doing something academic for 'fun'.

"So you find doing letters in runes fun?" he asked ignoring her sour look and picking up the book she was using. It had been propped up against a few others for ease of reading. He kept his finger in her place as he flipped through a few pages before looking at the cover. It wasn't their standard text book.

"Hey give that - " Blaise placed the book right where it had been, open to the page she had it on. "- back."

Blaise looked at Susan expectantly.

"Oh," came her soft answer as she looked down at her book finding it to be right where she had had it.

"You know, Gobshock does better than Willix when it comes to runic translations."

"Really?" asked Susan with surprise, seeming to believe him for a moment, then her face became clouded. "How do I know you are telling me the truth?"

Blaise shrugged one of his shoulders. "It's not like I'm your enemy." He gave a small smile before leaving Susan to ponder his words.

"You were right!" said Susan a week later approaching Blaise as he sat in a corner of the library; it was blissfully unoccupied, perfect to work on his transfiguration essay.

"About?" asked Blaise looking up at Susan with amused surprise.

"Godshock. It was a lot easier to decipher the runes with him."

A smile played across Susan's lips capturing a lot of Blaise's attention, more than he would have really cared to give, and yet here he was ensnared by the blond who decided to take a seat next to him - an unexpected turn of events.

"Why did you help me? You've been helping me since before the start of term. Why?"

Blaise's brow furrowed for a moment. "I have?"

This elicited a giggle from Susan, again soft and natural, rather that high pitched and annoying. "You have. You suggested I use my wand back at Kings Cross before we left for Hogwarts. You also didn't mock me for getting caught by that stupid jinx on the book I wanted. Okay, so that wasn't helping but it was more than what most Slytherins would do. Then you recommended me a better book."

Susan's eyebrows were raised as she looked at Blaise, for the briefest of moments he found himself without words. He had been, what could be considered nice, he supposed. His thoughts had drifted to Susan more than they probably should have, especially considering that she was in an opposing house, and was less than pure in blood. Could he really confess that her green eyes and luminescent blond hair were why he had been as he was? It sounded ridiculous. Of course, there was more to it than that now. He liked her smile, it was sweet, and her laugh, was like a melody to him and - this was nuts.

"I guess you could say I'm not quite like other Slytherins," he finally answered with a casual shrug. He dipped his quill into ink as if he was not interested in the current conversation, and that what he said was all there was too how he had been acting. He ended up not lifting the quill back out of the ink pot.

"That is what I've tried to tell the others."

"What?"

"I was talking to Hannah and Marilyn about our conversations, and they don't think you are being nice – they think that you are setting me up for something awful." A pink flush spread across Susan's face as she stared down at her hands.

"Is that what you think?"

Susan bit her lip drawing attention to it before she shook her head.

"While the general rule of thumb is that all Slytherin's are the enemy. That may not be the case here." Blaise shifted a little toward Susan starting to bridge the gap between them.

"Besides, whatever happened to the saying 'Keep your friends close and your enemies closer'?" Blaise drew closer, the distance between them vanished, and their lips met in that perfect kiss so many talk of.


End file.
